Andrew Stevens, inset with his daughter Violet, is one of two Swansea councillors who have had emergency surgery since the coronavirus lockdown (Image: Getty Images/Indeed)

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Two councillors who needed emergency surgery during the lockdown have thanked NHS staff in Swansea, and urged people not to be afraid of hospitals if they are seriously unwell.

Cllr Andrew Stevens slashed his wrist, forearm and thumb by accident on the family farm, while Cllr Jeff Jones suffered a heart attack at home.

Accident and emergency admissions in Swansea Bay have nearly halved in recent weeks, and there are concerns that some patients who should be presenting at A&E are staying at home, fearful of the coronavirus.

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Cllr Stevens - Labour ward member for Penyrheol - has around 100 stitches and is now getting some movement back, though not yet in his thumb.

In recent years he has raised thousands of pounds for the cardiomyothathy service at Morriston Hospital with an annual rugby tournament in memory of a good friend, Richard 'Decky' Thomas, who died from the condition aged 29.

Cllr Stevens said Mr Dobbs was "a magician", and added: “All of this was in the middle of a pandemic. It proves just how wonderful our NHS is and why we should protect it at all costs.”

He said he was determined to make a full recovery, and was being well looked after at home by his three-year-old daughter, Violet, and wife Rebecca.

Cllr Stevens, who is cabinet member for better communities, said his brother was normally more injury prone.

"He got head-butted by a yearling calf and broke his eye socket," he said. "And he's cut his thumb down to the nerve.

"Farming is a dangerous job."

Recovering at home: councillor Jeff Jones

Cllr Jones, meanwhile, was at home in Killay with his wife Mary on the evening of March 30 when he experienced an intense chest pain.

He said: "I shouted to Mary and said, 'I think I'm having a heart attack.'

"She phoned for an ambulance, and they told me to crush four aspirin tablets in my mouth.

"The ambulance came after about 15 minutes. They gave me morphine and a spray under the tongue - the pain improved.

"Then they put me in the back of the ambulance and took me to Morriston Hospital on blue lights."

Later that evening Cllr Jones underwent an operation, and remained in hospital for a further couple of days.

He said he was advised that his blocked artery had successfully been cleared.

Cllr Jones said he was extremely grateful to the paramedics and everyone at the hospital.

"If they hadn't come out, and then carried out that procedure, I think I would have been a goner," he said.

The Lib-Dem ward member for Killay South said he'd had a heart attack in 2005 while mowing the lawn, but that this latest one was more traumatic.

"It was extremely painful," he said.

Cllr Jones said he was very tired for the first two weeks after the operation but was feeling better now.

There was no fear, he said, about having to go to hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic.